Conversations at the American Corner

In our last podcast in a series focused on women’s leadership, we talk to Ambassador Rick Mills and his wife Leigh Carter, a retired U.S. diplomat. They share the story of how they met doing visa interviews at the U.S. Embassy in Paris and talk about how society has changed for female diplomats over the years. Discussing the #MeToo movement, they talk about the challenges of a budding office romance and the importance of ensuring harassment-free workplaces.

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Sabet Hovhannisyan, director of Arevik Publishing House, and Alvard Jivanyan, children’s literature editor at Zangak Publishers, talk about the process of giving books life by publishing them. Along the way, they discuss the role of women in business, the priorities women should place on their career, and the influence books can have on children.

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It’s not easy to take a leap of faith and follow your passion, but in our latest edition of the “Conversations at the American Corner” podcast series we talk to two women who did just that. As we focus in March on Women’s Leadership, we talk with book translator Nune Torosyan and Arevik Ashkharoyan, founder and agent at the ARI Literary and Talent Agency. Do you agree that when your heart is not in what you are doing you can never succeed?

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We discuss the Trump Administration’s recently-released National Security Strategy (NSS) with Matt Eussen, head of the Embassy’s Political and Economics section. The NSS is a Congressionally-required Executive Branch document that outlines the President’s vision for America’s national security strategy. In the podcast we talk about what is in President Trump’s NSS, how it differs from past strategies, and how it might shape and guide U.S.-Armenian relations in the future.

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To highlight Armenia’s military cooperation with the United States, we talk with Lieutenant Colonel Garnik Varosyan and Sergeant Aram Simonyan about Armenia’s Role II EMEDS unit. They speak about the history of their unit and the close cooperation with the United States’ Office of Defense Cooperation in the training and equipping of this unique capability. As well as highlighting their recent successes in multinational exercises, they talk about what the future holds for Armenia’s Role II EMEDS.

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We end our series on USAID’s 25 year history in Armenia by talking with USAID Armenia Mission Director Debbie Grieser about the past, present, and future of USAID Armenia. She speaks about how the organization originally provided humanitarian aid to a newly independent nation, but now is  working in a variety of sectors to support the development of trade between our two countries. And she looks beyond, into the future of USAID’s partnership with Armenia.

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We continue our celebration of the 25^th anniversary of USAID’s mission to Armenia by looking at how today’s mission prioritizes developing Armenia’s economy and civil society to ensure it can take advantage of the global marketplace. In this episode we talk to one of USAID’s partners in this effort, Bagrat Yengibaryan, executive director of Enterprise Incubator Foundation, one of the largest technology business incubators and IT development agencies in the region, about the role IT does and can play in Armenia’s development.

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As we celebrate 25 years of USAID’s mission in Armenia, we explore the organization’s early focus on humanitarian assistance in Armenia, from the 1988 earthquake to the difficult post-independence period. In the first of three podcasts on USAID’s legacy in Armenia, we are at the Gyumri American Corner talking with Armen Varosyan, currently with the Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development, who talks about his experience in USAID’s efforts to move residents of Gyumri out of domiks and into permanent homes.

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Not all volunteerism and community service is done by individuals. Christoph Speck, general manager of Coca-Cola HBC Armenia, talks about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and why companies like Coca-Cola think it pays to give back to the community. He talks about how CSR helps build a company’s values, giving its employees a shared goal that brings them together.

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As Peace Corps celebrates its 25^th year in Armenia, Gina Grotelueschen, director of programming and training at Peace Corps Armenia, talks to a group of Peace Corps Volunteers serving in Armenia about their experiences and the community involvement, NGO support, and volunteerism they bring to the country.

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